Soumboulou!!!

I think I have mentioned before that over the last twelve months or so eMusic has acquired a real treaure trove of recordings by West and North African female vocalists. The likes of Mariem Hassan, Nahawa Doumbia and Adja Soumano have all been featured here as a result.

My latest new discovery is the exotically-named Soumboulou Siby. All I have been able to find out about her is that she is apparently from Senegal, and that she is responsible for this bewitching album:

"Ido Tixu N'Daga" is also now available for download from Amazon as well as eMusic, and very possibly elsewhere as well. Here are a couple of my favourite tracks:

"N'Djeneba" - Soumboulou Siby

"Fedde" - Soumboulou Siby

I have also been able to track down this rather hypnotic video clip of Soumboulou from 2008:

All you fans of "world music" (to use that dreadful phrase) will no doubt be eagerly looking forward to the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday. To finish off today, here is another woman of African descent who featured in the semi-final last night. Her name is Stella Mwangi and she was representing Norway. The song is nothing special but I was slightly surprised it didn't at least make it through to the final, considering some of the rubbish that did. But that is the joy of Eurovision.